


Uncertain Smile

by orphan_account



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Buenos Aires, Love at First Sight, M/M, Smoking, Strangers to Lovers, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-24
Updated: 2010-07-24
Packaged: 2020-01-05 19:40:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18372758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Garay meets someone who's a little different from his regular life.





	Uncertain Smile

The train was packed and he was hanging onto one of the rails overhead, closest to the doors so he could make a quick escape when the doors opened at his stop. It was a hot day and there was a fat woman pressing uncomfortably close to his crotch. He bit his lip and looked across the carriage, hoping for anything to distract him from the fact he was in a tightly packed carriage surrounded by strangers who were very sweaty, going to another day at a job he hated. That's when he spotted him.  
  
He was also hanging onto one of the overhead rails, by the very tips of his fingers, even though he wasn't short enough for reaching them to be a problem. He was clean shaven but he was rubbing his face like he had stubble, before frowning and letting his hand drop, trying not to hit the woman next to him on the head. He was wearing a dark suit that didn't fit him properly and was chewing intensely on his bottom lip as he looked out of the window he was pressed up against, Buenos Aires rushing past. He was thinking hard and had a distant look in his dark eyes, like he was somewhere far away from this train carriage.

He knew he was staring but he couldn't look away, something told him that this person was going to be the most interesting thing he'd see all day. He looked so ordinary, and yet there was something about him that marked him as different.

Suddenly his eyes flicked away from the window, like he'd just realised that someone was watching him, and he looked down, trying to get his phone out to pretend he was doing something else, something that was not staring at a stranger on the train like a complete creep, smacking the fat woman next to him in the gut who exclaimed something about his heritage and questioned wherever he was related to a donkey of ill repute. He didn't even react to the insults as he looked up from his phone, and found that the other man had gone back to looking out of the window, chewing his lip again. He looked back down at his phone (no messages of course, it was eight in the morning, nobody needed him at this time of day) and when he looked back up, he caught the eye of the other man.

The other man smiled at him.

It was one of the most shy, slightly awkward smiles he'd ever seen. It was uncertain, as if he wasn't sure what the reaction to it would be. There was something delicate, like it was a rare treasure that nobody else saw, at least not like this. Despite how shy it was, it lit up his whole face. He couldn't help but smile back; feeling that he wasn't actually deserving of getting this smile. His heart was pounding as the train slowed to a stop, still keeping eye contact with that man with the shy smile.

Then he suddenly heard the name of his stop being called out, and he found himself being pushed out of the train by the surging crowd around him and the man on the other side of the carriage was gone. He was standing on the platform as people shoved him aside to get into the train, like he'd just been hit by a bomb.

The train pulled out of the station, and Ezequiel realised that something very important had just happened. And that he hadn't got his name.

"Shit."

 

* * *

 

"So if you can just double check those figures and have those done by lunch...are you okay?" Ezequiel looked up from the paperwork on his desk and frowned at his manager.

"Yeah, why shouldn't I be?" His manager shrugged and tapped his wrist.

"You just seem different. Like something's really pissed you off."

"I'm fine." He picked up his reading glasses from next to him and put them on, hoping that it would signal that the conversation was over.

"Get that done, Garay." As his manager walked off, he pushed his glasses up his nose as he picked up the list of the estimates that Fernando had made up. He flicked through them and found at least twelve mistakes on the first page. He sighed quietly to himself as he picked up a nearby highlighter. This was a thankless job, even more so than his last one. And he couldn't get that guy on the train out of his mind. He looked out of the window next to him (only perk he had, a window seat) and out onto the street below. He could seem the same rows of dusty old shops that were always there, towered over by this ugly office building. People rushed by with purpose, no wanderers. Then he saw a shape that vaguely looked similar, kind of like...

His heart raced again, until the figure got close enough for him to realise that no, it wasn't the same guy. He pinched the end of his nose as he went back to his numbers, trying to focus. Nobody had gotten under his skin like this in years, and he had only seen him for five minutes. He couldn't believe this. Was he thirteen again?

 

* * *

 

The next morning he wasn't on the train. Or the next day. Or any of the days that followed for nearly a month. Ezequiel forgot about it (or at least that's what he told himself, because pining for a complete stranger was pathetic). He'd called his ex, desperate for something, but had given up after listening to him ramble about some new shoes he'd brought for fifteen minutes. He wasn't that desperate for a booty call. His neighbour started to play the guitar at 3am on week nights. His mother had tried to set him up on a date with a girl back home. That had been awkward; he needed to tell his parents soon that he didn't actually like girls as well as boys. He thought he did but life proved him wrong.

Then out of nowhere, that man reappeared. When Ezequiel had woken up that morning, he'd felt like something was going to happen that day, but he'd written it off because he'd woken up feeling like that before and then nothing had happened. But that morning when he looked around the carriage (just in case there was a spare seat, of course) and had seen that the man was there again, his heart had jumped straight into his mouth. He had to do something, if only get closer to him. He squeezed across the carriage, stepping on feet and bags until he found himself opposite him.

He was leaning against the barrier between the doors and the seats behind him. This time had stubble on his face and was in casual clothes but he had the same faraway look in his eyes. The train stopped and more people pushed on, and they found themselves being pushed into the corner next to the closed doors, Ezequiel trapping the smaller man. Finally making eye contact, he smiled at him awkwardly, as an apology, wondering if the other man even remembered him.

The other man frowned at him, brow creased and then, very slowly, the light of recognition spread across his face. This time when he smiled it was different. Not so shy and a tiny bit wider.

"Hi." Ezequiel cursed himself for not saying something smarter but the other guy didn't seem to mind that it was inane.

"I didn't think I'd see you again." His voice reflected how he looked and carried himself, with a nervous energy, slight awkwardness and yet there was something so solid and sturdy under that. Ezequiel was intrigued by it.

"I didn't either."

"Gonzalo." He offered, without waiting for the other formalities as the train lurched again and Ezequiel ended up even closer to him, pressing up against him.

"Ezequiel." Gonzalo smiled again as he looked over Ezequiel's shoulder, checking where they were before looking back at him. Ezequiel felt a hand taking his down by his thigh and squeezing it, and he looked down to double check, yes, it was Gonzalo's. "You're brash." He whispered, desperate to not be overheard, this wasn't the kind of place he should be flirting in, but he also couldn't miss this chance again.

"No. I'm shy." Then Ezequiel felt something being pushed into the palm of his hand as the train slowed down again. Then that hand was gone and Gonzalo slipped past him, melting into the stream of people pouring off the train.

Ezequiel checked his hand and found a piece of paper with a phone number on it. When he got into work he wrote the number down enough times that it started to swirl and stopped looking like numbers when he looked at them.

 

* * *

 

"I don't normally do things like that. It's – it's not me." Gonzalo was only wrapped in a sheet, his back bared to the night and to Ezequiel as he lay down, head back on the cushions, cigarette in mouth.  
  
"Really?" Gonzalo laughed to himself, and Ezequiel smiled because he liked that laugh – he hadn't heard it a lot yet but there was time for that, time for everything. They had talked a little on the phone, he had invited Gonzalo over that same night and they had almost ended up fucking on the sofa before they had managed to stop long enough to move into the bedroom.

"I just knew that you weren't going to kick my head in or something. I just knew I had to do it or else you'd disappear again."

"Why were you there on that first day?" Ezequiel blew out smoke as Gonzalo groaned and flopped onto the bed next to him.

"Do we have to?" Ezequiel gave him a look that said 'yes'. "For a job interview. I didn't get it, but I didn't want it anyway. I need to do what I love or I'll fade away. I need to move out, my parents keep nagging me but I can't afford it."

"Move in with me." Ezequiel suggested, stubbing out the end of his cigarette in the ash tray.

"What?"

"Move in with me." He normally wouldn't suggest this after the first fuck, never mind when meeting someone for a second time. But Gonzalo wasn't normal. He wasn't the type of guy he'd been with before, hadn't met him like he normally met guys, he was actually shy if not in bed, the scratches on his back attested to that and seemed relatively low maintenance. With all the previous guys he had been with, he could see how it would end. He'd been right every damn time but he couldn't see that how this would end. Something told him that because Gonzalo was different, their relationship would be different. Because no way after tonight was he letting him get away, never.

"Do you normally ask people that the second time you meet them?"

"No. But you're not most people. You're different." He lent down and kissed Gonzalo, trying to express this and smiled when he broke away and Gonzalo said something about kissing ash trays.

"You need to quit smoking."

"I'll do it if you move in with me." Gonzalo lent across him to the bedside table, picked up the packet of cigarettes, then still completely naked, opened the window and dropped them out of it.  
  
"Done." Ezequiel laughed, harder than he had in months. He could see Gonzalo pouting a little (pouting, unbelievable) and Ezequiel motioned for him to come back over. He was still laughing as the shorter man curled up against him, bare skin against bare skin.

"I can't believe you're real." Gonzalo smiled and lent in and kissed him, the window still open and letting a breeze in. In the distant a police siren wailed, and Ezequiel found he couldn't sleep when Gonzalo finally settled down on his chest and drifted off.

This was either one of the most stupid ideas he'd ever had, or one of the best. He'd find out soon enough which one it was.


End file.
